Harry Hattyar. Easy steps to reading

parked the car and Mark went to get a cart. They loaded up the cart with jars of jam, pancake mix, beer for Carl, frozen tarts for Mark. They also got a slab of lard, a pack of shark meat, rock salt and a box of starch.

"I will need some garments," Carl said, and got a scarf and a warm jacket.

Carl paid and then Mark pushed the cart to the parked car. They loaded the lot into the trunk.

"We will drive back home," said Carl. He put the car in gear, and they started off.

"Can I steer?" Mark asked, wanting to try his hands on the car. Carl said, "Maybe you can try when we get off the tar road."

On the narrow lane, which was a side road, Carl let Mark hold the steering wheel all the way to the farmyard. When the car stopped in the yard, Spark, Carl's dog, ran to them and barked to show his sheer gladness. Mark scratched Spark's ears. Spark panted and yelped and licked Mark's hand.

"You must be parched and starving," Mark said to the dog. He gave Spark three hard dog biscuits and milk in his dish.

Carl told Mark that an artist lived on a nearby farm. Mark's ma was also an artist of sorts. She made carpets to hang on walls. Mark liked the one with five deer grazing by a creek and a bearded man watching them from the forest.

"His name is Chuck," said Carl of this artist. "He is a farmer, but he also carves things from logs." But that did not describe Chuck's art in the least.

One fine day Carl drove Mark to Chuck's farm. Beneath the eaves of Chuck's old barn Mark saw the carvings Chuck had made. They were big. Real big. Men and beasts of all kinds standing and sitting, all made from logs. Big ones.

Chuck came to shake hands. "Want to see me carve?" he asked.

He started up his chain saw and the screaming almost split Mark's eardrums. The sharp teeth of the saw bit into a log propped up on legs. Sawdust cascaded to the floor. In a short time the shape of a standing steer became clear. It was like watching witchcraft. It was great art.

Days passed and time for harvesting peaches came. Carl hauled piles of crates to the orchard and set them up by the trees. Most of the peaches were picked green so they keep on the trip to the market. But Mark did find one tree with soft ripe peaches hanging on the branches and he ate them until he was stuffed.

Mark liked life on the farm.

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step 21

Ernest, Irma, Earl, and Myrtle all worked on Thursdays.

A hare and a bear went to the fair, there to try their luck.

It was Thursday, the thirteenth of March, and it was Irma's birthday. Bert, Myrtle and Earl, all her classmates, were there to share in the birthday cake. Irma's hair was curled. She wore white skirt and a pink top studded with pearls.

"Irma, serve the cake and the pear punch," her Ma said.

Irma cut squares from the cake and stirred the pear punch. "Come have your cake," she said, "We have cake to spare."

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They ate cake and drank pear punch. Then Irma opened the birthday gifts. She got a puppet bear with black fur, a pair of curved hairpins with fake pearls, and a purse with a bird darned on it. Irma sat on her chair.

"This is a rare birthday for me," she said. "And such fine gifts! Thank you all."

They turned on the tape deck to hear songs. Then Myrtle said, "Let's play something."

"Fine, but what?" asked Bert.

"Perhaps let's play nurse," said Irma. The girls became nurses, while Bert and Earl played the sick. The girls checked their pulses, gave them drinks, and wiped their cheeks with napkins. "Don't squirm, Bert," one of the girls said. "You are ill and you must rest."

They had more cake and punch before Myrtle, Bert and Earl went home.

"Thank you, Ma, for baking the cake and for all you did for my birthday," Irma said before going up the stairs to her bed.

* * *

Art is a hero of the Gulf War. In the first days of the war he was sitting in the rear, taking care of the hardware and electronics on his tank. Both he and his pal, Paul, heard airplanes screaming up in the air, speeding off to the north. They wanted to go help the airmen but their time had not come yet. One day they got rolling at last. The tanks rumbled past the salt marshes by the coast of the golf. Next day they stopped to make camp and rest. Darkness came and they saw great flashes to the north and heard the screams of the incoming grenades and the flashes of blasts nearby. Then came a blinding flash. Art felt he was flying in the air. He hit the sand hard. He felt a searing pain in his arm, but his mind was on Paul, who had been standing next to him. He dragged himself back to the tank. There was Paul, lying in the dust. Art lit a flare and saw the tear in his pal's pant leg and tears of pain stream on his face. "Are you hurt?" he asked Paul. Just then a grenade hit their tank in a big blast. With one arm lame and bleeding, Art dragged Paul from the burning tank and tied off Paul's leg with his belt to stop the bleeding. When the medics came, they told Art that he had saved Paul's life. By then Art was weak from his own bleeding arm and fainted. The medics laid Art on a cot and cared for him. They reported the way Art saved his pal.

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Watch for the R. The R plays TRICKS!

These are always said in the same way:

board, core, swarm, quart smart

chirp, lurch, myrtle cheer

stair, stare

These are not said in the same way:

clear, learn, pear

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Nor are these:

hero, jerk, there

Nor are these:

rare, are

Nor are these:

horn, work

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step 22

The cook shook his foot.

Cool Sue threw a prune at a goose.

Few mules bray on cue.

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step 23

The brown mouse was proud.

The boy spoiled the oil.

Roy had moved to the East Coast but now he came back to the small town of Clintdale, where his grandma still lived. Roy took his new wife, Sharon, with him for the weekend to see grandma.

Grandma told Sharon how Roy used to play cowboy out in the shed. He folded a big brown flour sack for the saw horse and mounted it. Then he shouted loud, riding to the point of the herd to round up the cows.

At noontime Roy and Sharon took Grandma to downtown Clintdale, which was the town square and a few blocks of Market Street and State Street. The town

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square itself was, in fact, not square at all, but round with a white bandstand on a low mound.

"Let's have lunch at our old joint, Grandma," said Roy, pointing at an inn called The Stout Fowl.

"It's fine with me," she said. "They still cook their roast pork loin crisp on the outside and moist inside."

Next day Roy took Sharon to the attic. "I used to prowl the attic when I was a boy," he told her. "I dressed up in Grandma's old gown and found toys she had played with when she was a girl."

There was a crate of books by the joint of the roof. Roy lifted the lid to look inside. He picked up a book.

"I almost forgot this one," he said with a smile. "A book of verses. Look at this one. Grandma used to read it to me. I still have it word by word. It was called "The Mouse and the Owl," and Roy started out without delay:

A house mouse that was going to town

Was stopped on the road by a big brown owl. "How do you do?" hooted the stout owl, And his hooting sounded like a growl.

"I am just fine," told him the mouse, Trying to leave behind

The owl and his house.

"Don't go so soon," pouted the bird,

"Rest in my house while quenching your thirst. Sit on my couch, it's soft like a cloud,

And join me for a meal, making me proud." But the house mouse had figured out

What the owl had in mind, And shouted out loud, "Thanks, but not now!"

And left the frowning owl behind.

"That was cute," said Sharon when Roy finished, kissing him.

The weekend went by fast. They all had a fine time. The two days were filled with joy and happiness.

"Come back soon," shouted Grandma as the two drove off.

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step 24

Twenty pennies were all the money Billy had.

Watch these spellings:

hurry: hurries, hurried, hurrying carry: carries, carried, carrying curry: curries, curried, currying try: tries, tried, trying

fly: flies, flied, flying

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